In general, a combination vehicle light can be referred to as a front-combination lamp or a rear-combination lamp, and can include a housing, an outer lens defining together with the housing a lamp chamber that can be divided into a plurality of areas by functions such as an illumination lamp, a display lamp, a position lamp, a signal lamp, etc., and light sources that are disposed in the respective areas. An inner lens can be typically disposed in between the light sources and the outer lens.
Common outer lenses may be formed from a plain lens that is not subjected to lens-cut for light-path control and can be transparent and without color. In this case, an inner lens can have a function for concealing unattractive portions without aesthetic appearance when a viewer observes the vehicle lamp through the plain outer lens.
The inner lens may also have a function for forming a desired light distribution pattern alone or together with a reflector so as to control light paths of light emitted from the light source(s).
Further, the inner lens may have a function of color filter in order to impart desired colors to light beams from respective areas divided by functions. In this case, the inner lens can have respective colored areas corresponding to the desired colors.
Any of or all of these functions possessed by such an inner lens can be incorporated in the combination vehicle light, and further there is a demand to impart aesthetic features, decorative features, unpredictable features, etc., to a combination vehicle light in order to enhance the attractiveness of the lamp.
In response to this demand, a vehicle light 80 in which additional values other than the structural function is given to an inner lens has been proposed as shown in FIG. 1.
Such a vehicle light 80 can include an inner lens 84 having a lens portion 81, a side wall portion 82, and a flange portion 83, a housing defining together with the inner lens 84 a lamp chamber 86, and a light source disposed inside the lamp chamber 86. The vehicle light can include a light source 87 configured as an illumination light source that emits light beams including light beams L1 directed to the lens portion 81 and light beams L2 directed to a parabolic reflecting surface 88 of the housing 85. Light beams L3 emitted from the light source 87 and directed toward the side wall portion 82 can be allowed to pass through the side wall portion 82 toward the flange portion 89 having lens cuts 89a, 89b configured to reflect/refract the light beams by the lens cuts 89a, 89b, thereby achieving decorative effects and/or impact effects. (See Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-293795, for example.)
In this vehicle light 80, the lens cuts 89a, 89b aiming to impart the decorative effects and/or impact effects to the inner lens 84 can be provided to the flange portion 83 extending in a ring shape perpendicular to the side wall portion 82 from the outer peripheral portion 90 of the lens portion 81. The lens portion 81 positioned in a transparent area for allowing light beams to pass to form a main light distribution of the vehicle light 80 does not have lens cuts at the center portion of the inner lens 84.
Accordingly, such partial lens cuts 89a, 89b of the inner lens 84 may not sufficiently provide the decorative effects and/or impact effects.